Aftermath
by chocodauntlesscake
Summary: Sometimes war can be avoided, but sometimes this is impossible. Even if the war with the Erudite never happened, what about conflict from outside sources? Tris and Tobias learn that sometimes, violence is necessary.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Three months. It's been three months since I've seen my father. Three months since I've been recognized as a traitor towards the Abnegation faction. Three months since I've been labeled "Dauntless." I look at the girl in the mirror. She's not pretty. Anyone can see that. But she has a certain look to her. She looks tough, wiry, athletic. I shift my eyes to look down at her palms. Calluses line her upper hand and bruises scatter her body. She has changed in such a short time. Maybe she has always looked this way. But I wouldn't know. I still haven't gotten used to seeing her each morning. And perhaps I never will.

"Are you modeling in front of the mirror, Tris?"

_What?_ I swing my head back to glare at the voice. Of course, it's just Tobias, sneaking up on me. "Have you been spying on me?" I blush, suddenly ashamed of how much I was looking at myself. But then I snap out of it. _Stop, you're acting like Abnegation. _

Tobias' face is placid, almost grim. Immediately, I know something's off. "It's time to go," he says, and before I can respond, he's gone. Time to go? I didn't know we had plans. I hurry to catch up to him, trying to decipher his expression. But he gives no clue.

When he sees me, he slows down. "You know, no one cares." I look up at him, confused. "You don't need to hide your Abnegation, Tris." Then, in a lighter tone, he says, "Everyone knows you're a Stiff, anyway."

I look up at his teasing grin and swat his arm. Maybe it's nothing. "Thanks for the advice, Stiff," I reply mockingly. "And it's First Jumper to you."

He drapes an arm across my shoulders protectively, not replying. I rest my head comfortably in the crook of his neck.

Then a thought occurs to me. "Tobias, what was your Aptitude Test like?"

He stops to look at me. "Why?"

I shrug. "I don't know. Just tell me."

He doesn't look at me as he answers. "I made some unusual choices, strange simulations occurred. I assume yours was the same?"

I make a frustrated sound in my throat. "That wasn't vague at all."

"This isn't the best time to talk about it. Interrogate me later."

I let his arm drop softly from my shoulders as we walk on. I know Tobias is secretive, but sometimes I don't know why. I just hope that one day, he'll trust me enough to show me.

We walk most of the way in utter silence. I haven't even bothered to watch where I'm going. I just follow Tobias.

We arrive at the Pit. As Tobias moves swiftly up the rope, I groan. Hopefully, our journey will end soon. "Are we ever going to stop?" I moan after he makes some complicated twists and turns. We dodge fallen apart pieces of rope as we climb and I tighten my muscles. All part of the dangerous, Dauntless lifestyle. "Where are we going?"

But Tobias simply tilts his head. It is not until then when I notice he's nervous. I look around. The Pit is growing smaller, and I realize we are nearing the top of an abandoned building. Needless to say, I'm surprised; Tobias is afraid of heights. Whatever it is, it must be important.

"So... are you planning to tell me what we're here for?" I arch an eyebrow inquisitively.

"You've never been here before, am I correct?" I can tell he's stalling.

I can't wait anymore. "Stop being a wuss, what is it?"

Tobias smiles again, but this time, it's grim. He looks at me, his eyes serious. "Tris," he says, "something big is happening."

I look at him. "What is it?" I whisper, my voice almost inaudible.

"Something beyond the fence."

Before I can ask him anything else, I hear a loud rumble and the sound of horrified cries. Instead of answering, he reaches for my hand and begins, "Tris, I-" It's the last thing he says before I hear a grumble, a shake-then pieces start to fall.

**AN:**

Teme: :D

This was our first chapter, so please give us feedback! Any kind (good and bad) is appreciated! Thank you!

-Teme

Hellooo~ Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter! leave a review and rate so we can improve and upload more chapters! tanks :3

~ Tangerine

P.S. there are two authors on this thing, but we share one account... so we'll be going by "Tangerine" and "Teme" lolol XD thanks


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2  
I now see why Tobias chose to take me here. It's safer than most of the Dauntless compound, and I see that he has calculated this to the last second. Most of the other buildings begin to collapse-the older and less liable ones. The one we stand on now is stable, and I'm surprised. I guess the Erudite helped design it to be more structurally sound. If I had stayed in that room, I would have been killed.  
Pacing back and forth, Tobias clears his throat, startling me. "Get up, it's going to land now."

"What's going to land?" I ask, surprised. I look up into the sky and see a small helicopter, about twenty yards away. I back up next to Tobias and wait. The helicopter makes a strange, deafening noise as it comes nearer, and I cover my ears.

Tobias' nervous energy is gone now. I guess he has a plan for what's happening next. I stand far away as the helicopter makes a crisp, clean landing. A man sits in the front seat, a cocky grin situated on his face. As the back door opens and Tobias steps in, the man turns around with a maniac smirk on his face. "Ready to kick some butt?"

Tobias smiles slowly. "Hey, Barney. Long time no see." He gestures at me quickly. "This is Tris." I briefly wave before Tobias starts once again. "You know where to go, right?"

Barney scratches his beard. Despite his easy-going expression, it's easy to see his dark circles and his unshaven chin. I wonder how long he and Tobias have been planning this. "I've got an idea," he replies finally.

Tobias nods uncertainly and finally helps me up into the copter. I look out the window into the Dauntless compound. Who knows, it might be my last look. I look at Tobias to see if he's doing the same. But it looks like he looks resigned, detached, as if he had never been part of it at all.

Tobias is quiet for most of the ride, but he can tell I'm staring at him. He looks at me. "We call them gate-breakers," he says.

"What?"

"The outsiders."

I pause. "How long have you known?" The words sound demanding, almost fierce, which surprises me.

He doesn't answer. Instead he looks forward, where Barney is piloting.

"What about Christina? And Will? And the others?" I sound tired, and I realize I'm mad.

Tobias avoids my eyes, and speaks in his low, calm voice, which scares me. "If they were fast enough, they would have made it."

"Why didn't you tell me?" I ask, frustration taking over. Christina and Will could be dead by now. If he had told me, I could have saved them. He went through the trouble to find a safe, yet noticeable spot to land the helicopter, and he didn't bother to tell me anything.

I am about to scream out when he stops me."No time," he says. "There was no time."

Finally, the copter lands. It's a land of sameness- fields upon fields of golden hills. In another world, it might even be considered beautiful. But today, it is a warground.  
Looking closer, I see tents surrounding the area. I know food and supplies lay there. Trees are scattered all over the fields, dotting them like sprinkles on a cake.  
Barney lands the helicopter on an unpopulated patch of golden grass. When the blades stop turning frantically, my head begins to feel lighter without the sound. Tobias helps me out of the chopper with ease. I forget my irritation as I ask him, "Where are we?"  
But before he can answer, several people come out of the large tents to investigate. They were probably disturbed by the loud helicopter. I glance at the tens of people, and my heart drops; there aren't many. Among them are few people from Amity, some from Candor, and several from Erudite. However, most come from Dauntless, which calms me a bit.  
"Tobias, what-" I begin, but I am interrupted by a commotion in the crowd. I hear a loud shout.

"Move it or lose it, fellas." Two bodies push themselves out of the crowd and stand before Tobias and me. "Tris!" It's Christina and Will.

I blow a sigh in relief. "We're here, what's the news?" I take a moment to look over Christina, and then at Will. Both look battered and stretched beyond repair. Covered in bruises and cuts, the pair look considerably like they've been at war. My brief smile fades. "What happened?" Although Christina and Will look battered and worn, they just shrug.

"We had some trouble getting out of the Dauntless compound," Will explains. I look at them, uncertain.

"Relax, Tris," Christina laughs. "We're fine now."

"But why-" I begin, but I don't finish.

"Come on, Tris. Questions later. Let's get inside now." Christina begins to guide me to one of the tents.

But something snaps inside of me. I'm done with everyone being vague. Leaning close, I growl, "Tell me the truth. All of it."

Hi friends.

Hope you enjoy another cliffhanger cause we cool B) ermmm we're probably going to update like once or twice a week. Just to give you a heads up :) Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy it! Don't forget to read and review, it means a lot. Ciao!~

~Tangerine

Hello people of the universe!

We hope you liked this chapter! We are full of upcoming ideas, so please keep following our story! Any feedback is appreciated. Thank you for reading!

-Teme


	3. Chapter 3

_Hey, everyone! Teme here. Sorry there hasn't been an update in a while. I was in charge of uploading... and well, I've never done it before. Tangerine usually does the formatting and such. Sorry if it looks weird; I'm still learning! Anyways, on to the chapter..._

"It seemed as if the sky was falling," Will says, "and the earth was shattering." He gulps. "We were outside when it happened, so the buildings didn't crush us."

"We just got some cuts and bruises," Christina adds. "We followed some of the other Dauntless here. I think it's a farm." When I look at her, she clarifies, "You know, where they get all the food and stuff."

"It's just abandoned?" I ask.

"I think so. But there's still some plants growing around here that we can eat." She shrugs. "I guess it seemed like the best option at the time, though it's so far away from home."

I'm silent for a while. "The buildings," I whisper, "all of them were just…destroyed?"

Will nods. "The quake was extremely powerful." He closes his eyes. "Only a few buildings are still left standing."

I feel my throat getting tighter. "How many of us made it?"

Christina answers this question. "Only about twenty." Her voice cracks slightly. I see she has been trying to stay strong, but her resolve is slowly breaking. "Only sixty in all."

I pause, my mouth dry."What about Caleb?" My voice is barely a whisper, and it's almost inaudible.

They don't answer me. Will turns pale. Christina only shakes her head sadly, her eyes brimming with tears of sympathy.

I suddenly feel sick, and a sharp pain stabs me. It's hard to breathe. My hands begin to shake and Christina pulls me into a hug as my vision becomes blurred. I gulp, but I cannot will away the lump in my throat.

"How?" I ask. I sound weak, I know I do, but I want to know how he died.

"Cara saw it," Will says. "The building collapsed." He pauses momentarily. "It was too late."

I nod, somewhat numbly. I'm glad we're alone, only the three of us; I wouldn't want anyone else to see me like this. Tobias left us in the tent to talk about the earthquake, which I learn has been caused by the gate-breakers. We call the incident "the Attack."

I sigh. "Why are they doing this?" My voice strains a bit, and I don't sound anything like myself. "Why didn't anyone tell us about the Attack?" I shake my head.

Christina is quiet, and I suddenly feel minute. "We don't know. All we do know is that the gate-breakers probably stole some data from the Erudite in order to create the earthquake." She coughs, then clarifies, "The Erudite noticed that the quake was similar to something they were developing."

I nod my head slowly. The Erudite would have the data on one of their computers. If the gate-breakers had enough knowledge, they could have easily stimulated the quake.

The tent suddenly opens and I see Tobias looking at me, his expression serious. He doesn't acknowledge my red eyes or my tears. "I assume Christina and Will told you what's happened?"

"Yes."

He motions me with his hand. "We're having a meeting." He walks out of the tent and Will, Christina, and I follow him. I quickly wipe my eyes with the back of my hand as he leads us out.

I feel slightly hollow, and Christina walks beside me. I know she's trying to comfort me, but I can't help but feel that she just doesn't understand.

Outside, one of the few Amity women is speaking over the crowd. All of the survivors have come out to listen. She stands on a small rock, which makes her seem much taller than she is. A Candor man stands to her left.

"What we need to do next," the Amity woman nearly shouts, "is to secure our area." She looks around at all of us. "Tomorrow, we will start our work. Half of us will check on the factions. The other half will stay here and protect the land." She takes a small breath. "For today, we will rest and get accustomed to our surroundings." She talks a bit more about food rations, but I don't listen. When she steps down from the rock, I know the meeting's over.

The groups of people scatter; some go back to their tents while some stand around, talking. I walk straight towards our tent. I'm tired, and I don't want to be bothered. I don't want to be comforted. Tobias, Will, and Christina don't bother to follow me.

As I walk into the spacious tent, I plop down suddenly. The ground is hard and cold. I sit here, thinking. It's quiet and solitary. It's been a long time since I've ever felt like this: alone, even when I'm surrounded by people. It's times like this when I think of Al. Maybe he felt like this before he jumped, or maybe he thought of nothing at all before he was immersed into complete and utter darkness.

But I don't dwell on this for long, for I hear Will. He pops his head into the tent and says, "Tris, let's go. Christina and Four are waiting for us."

I look up at him and raise an eyebrow. "What for?"

What he says next surprises me: "Apple picking."

* * *

_**Hello! Thank you for reading our latest chapter. I wrote most of it, so please do not get angry if you didn't like it! Tangerine will write most of the next chapter. You'll understand more when you read her chapter. Did you like the ending? Ha, ha. Apple picking seems like fun...? Yeah... Well it is to me! XD Just kidding. This chapter's purpose is to explain what in the world is going on. Please give us feedback about this chapter (did you like it?). Thanks for reading!**_

_**-Teme**_

_**hi. i didn't write anything this chapter so ok lol i only wrote two lines sorryy D: i'm going to write a lot next chapter though you probably can't even tell i didn't write anything. oh well. bye and leave reviews because you're cool.**_

_**Thanks! :)**_

_**i love u bye**_

_**Tangerine**_


	4. Chapter 4

Hello, everyone. It's Teme and Tangerine. Unfortunately, this will be our last chapter. The series is cancelled.

*tangerine speaking here* okay so its honestly probably my fault its ending bc i was so busy with school and trips and everything(to be honest, a really big part of it was me feeling that my writing wasnt good enough) that i couldn't write my last chapter :( and teme couldnt write the rest without it. so uh... i used to have really big plans for this fanfic but i guess itll have to end here. goodbye, i hope you understand :) and do not hate me.~Tangerine, signing off.

Teme here, again. Anyways, I already wrote the ending to the entire fanfiction, but the other chapters have not been made. Sorry, people of Earth. I hate leaving things unfinished, but it just happened to turn out this way. Sorry! I was going to finish the series without Tangerine (she didn't want to continue) but I was kind of at a loss without the next chapter. I really wanted to write, but after waiting for around a month for the next chapter, I kind of got less motivated. So sorry you had to wait this long just for a cancellation of the story. I had the story mapped out and everything, but it just didn't work out, sorry. -Teme

we are, however, writing small one shot type things as our final farewell for this story. they are separate, and enjoy reading them :)

Teme:

Instead of writing something new, I decided just to upload the ending of the series. Sadly, Tangerine didn't write any of this, so it is not very magical. It is poorly written and not completely perfected. For that, I am sorry. The background for this epilogue: Basically, there was a war or whatever between the GATE-BREAKERS, but everything is fine now. Everyone has decided to work together on the farms. There is no segregation. Technically, all of the factions together are "Divergent." Everything is happy as can be.

Three months. It's been three month since the Attack. Three months since the death. Three months since I've been freed.

Life is simpler now. No more chasing trains, no more guns, no more war. In fact, everyone seems to live in harmony. Will says that long ago, perhaps hundreds of years ago, people used to live like this: simply, together, as one. Things seem more normal than they ever were before.

Everything's different now, though. Factions do not divide us anymore; I no longer see a Candor and a Dauntless working side by side. I see companions, friends, _family. _All of us have joined together to build a new community. Seeing all of this reminds me of my life in Abnegation. Perhaps I haven't let go of my ties with my old faction, but now I know that I don't have to; all of our factions are united here. Life here makes me feel at peace.

Peace. It's one of the many things that have changed me. Sometimes I wonder if I'm the only one that's changed. Will is still his carefree self, and Christina is still a daring thrill seeker. But I know they've changed, too; how could they not? They've seen war, they've seen bloodshed. But that aspect of our lives is gone now. I wonder if they ever try to forget.

"Tris?" Tobias looks at me. "Come on, Will and Christina are going to leave us behind again." He grins at me. I shoot him a funny look. At first I'm confused, but then I realize it's time for our tradition: apple picking.

Then, I laugh—a long laugh, one that I haven't heard for a while. Tobias motions me to follow him as he walks out the tent. I keep a few paces behind him at first. Sometimes, when we take walks like this, we don't talk. I like to reflect. I've been doing a lot of thinking lately. I think of how it's the first time I've felt safe. No one cares about my Divergence. No one wants to kill me, no one wants me dead. I finally feel stable.

I take a deep breath before I catch up to Tobias, who takes my hand in his. He laces his fingers with mine carefully as we walk to the orchards together, hand in hand, survivor with survivor.

Divergent with Divergent.

Tangerine: *just so you know, this is a post-war scenario where Will still lives(which i guess shows why Christina is still super duper spunky)*

"Come on Tris, loosen up!"

I looked up to see Christina laughing at me, her eyes bright.

"Is this what you call a party?" I huffed unhappily as I eyed the neon lights and the loud music in the sleeping quarters.

Ever since the war, things have been progressing. Just as it should. Quite a few survivors followed us back into the Dauntless headquarters and for now, we're trying to get along. I tried to hold back a deep frown as I picture how we're going to run the establishment. I wasn't ready to be leader quite yet. Suddenly, a splash of liquid hit me. I jerked back.

"Sorry, Tris!" A hysterically laughing Tobias came stumbling toward me. He gripped my arm tightly and clumsily tried to give me a hug, stepping on my foot in the process.

"Oops," he muttered.

"Christina, did you let him get to the booze?" I raised my eyebrows at her.

"Whoops," she smirked. Tobias once again tugged me toward him. His breath reeked of alcohol, but he looked handsome and rugged nonetheless, if not a bit crazed.

"Hey Tris," he yelled incoherently. "You look good."

I cracked a smile, remembering when I first saw him drunk. _The first time I saw him "real". _"You too, Tobias."

He grinned and leaned down to kiss me. I closed my eyes, expecting to feel his lips, but instead was met with another burst of liquid. I opened my eyes, sputtering.

Tobias remained standing cockily, the now empty beer bottle in his hand.

"It's on."


End file.
